Period 31: My Older Brother And I
My Older Brother And I '''is the 31st chapter of the Zekkyou Gakkyuu series and 3rd chapter in the volume 8 manga. Premise ''Tired of the way her brother treats her, Mana makes a wish for a better brother and to her surprise it comes true! But soon she realizes this brother would be willing to do anything to make her happy... '' Yomi's Introduction Yomi points the Reader over to a pair of siblings who are chatting with ice cream. She asks the Reader to observe them and points out how well they get along, then asks if they ever felt the same way- to have a brother who would act this way. Summary After school, Mana has her friend read the report she wrote about her family. She describes who she is and her grade, and how she has a family of four- but only likes her parents. She utterly detests her brother, who makes fun of her and is highly inconsiderate. Despite her insistence that this is true, Mana's teacher wants her to change it. He even changed the channel when she was in the middle of an anime she had been waiting to see due to not liking it. Hearing this, her friend wonders why they struggle to get along while recalling that she and her brother interact fine. Mana wonders if this is only her family with this problem, and she takes out a charm book she borrowed from the school library and states how nobody is dependable -except for God- explaining how the book instructs the user to draw their dream person and list various details within the grounds of a temple. Mana prepares her drawing of a male in a school uniform, then puts ''dream 'brother ''above him and writes various things down: ''Looks exactly like Matsui, cool and kind and doesn't get mad, listens to whatever I say. Then she offers the shrine money and prays for the brother she drew while her friend claims it probably won't work. To her frustration her brother, Ikumi, suddenly rides by on his bike to tell her that their mother will probably be upset she isn't home yet. He then spots the book and her drawing. The following morning Mana is still in a foul mood as she eats breakfast, with her exasperated parents observing her as her mothers asks her to forget about it and offers to make her more dessert later. They are joined by Ikumi and he remarks on how she is running late for school. Alarmed, Mana looks to see as he mocks her for the charm she made the prior day and she hurriedly gets up to change and leave. He takes off of his bike while proclaiming how he hates having her for a sister, and he threatens not to save her any snacks before taking off, causing her to angrily give chase until she is unable to run any longer. By now Mana is at her wits end, and she loudly begs God to grant her wish. The following day a young man appears and he greets the confused Mana. He can't understand her behavior before reminding her that it's time for school and that they need to get going, and while she remains perplexed, her mother is shown behaving the same way wondering who the male is; although their dad simply states "it's Iku". He brings her outside and puts a bike helmet on her in order to give her a ride to school and apologizes for his behavior the prior day, offering her both snacks in exchange. As they arrive to school, Mana remains stunned as several girls crowd around her to remark upon how much he resembles Matsui from Johnny's and bring up how cool he is. They claim Mana is very lucky to have such a considerate and kind brother, and she is left wondering if God granted her wish. After school, Ikumi offers to play a game with Mana, who hesitantly agrees and determines she must be dreaming. Suddenly the game slides out of the case, and she instantly panics as she sees it got scratched and recalls how Ikumi used to respond, nervously waiting for him to begin yelling at her. "Ikumi" questions her behavior and laughs, remarking on how clumsy she is before offering to help her play the game, saying it will still work fine. She agrees and they begin to play while she realizes how much fun she is having, sharing snack with him until she ends up losing. She is so happy she doesn't care, but she wonders if this really is a dream and decides to just enjoy it for the time being. The next day Mana is forced awake by their irate mother, who tells her to stop being such a child and depending on Ikumi so much like she has been lately and pointing out that it's her own fault for staying up so late playing video games. Mana changes and leaves while crying again, with Ikumi riding his bike next to her trying to cheer her up. He claims not to mind as she goes on to remark on how she would like a kinder mother, considering their father is so weak that he won't even try to speak against her. Ikumi stops and observes as Mana continues to walk on unaware. Once school ends, Mana prepares for the worst as she makes her way home. She expects her mother to still be in a bad mood but to her surprise, she finds a couple who don't resemble her parents at all and are delighted to see her. She asks who they are, but they assume she's making a joke and bring up being her parents. She expresses shock as Ikumi returns home and she asks him why this happened, noticing the charm book tucked beneath his arm. He brings up finding it in her room, and after he heard her speak that morning, he decided to make "dream parents" for her. She remains alarmed as they begin showering her with positive attention, offering to let her do what she wants and how they will make sure things are okay if she gets into trouble. As Ikumi remarks on having the family of her dreams, she angrily snatches the book away from him and runs into her room to escape them. She begins to cry again, exhausted from trying to make sense of this whole thing and she tries to determine what to do. She begs for help while they try to get into her room, and in her hurry she accidentally causes a single picture to fall to the floor and she picks it up to see her family on it. In this time she remembers everything her brother had done in the past. Despite being such a jerk, he also took care of her; helping her up when she got hurt, standing outside in the freezing cold to get a game she wanted, and she had even been told by their mother that he lied when he claimed their mom would be upset that she didn't come home; he was worried about her and went to look for her. Mana continues to cry as she remembers how in her moment of poor judgement she forgot about the good times they has as siblings and she decides that she must return to the shrine to set things right. As the sun begins to set Mana escapes from her house and she rushes for the shrine to find two parental figures were drawn in the sand surrounding her original drawing. Angrily she brushes her shoe against the sand and dirt in an attempt to get rid of the drawings while demanding her family comes back. But despite how much she scratches the drawing won't go away. Suddenly, Ikumi and their dream parents show up, and he asks why she isn't happy even though he granted her wish. She refuses to see him as her brother, and she demands to know where her real family went and angrily she shoves him down. After he collides with the ground, she is horrified as he begins disintegrating into sand and falls apart; quick sand that she begins to sink into. He promises to let Mana see her family again though, because as her dream brother he would do anything to make her happy. As the sand shift, Mana finds something of her mothers she recognizes, and she realizes they have been buried beneath the sand. It continues to shift and she sees other things before begging God to return everything to normal while openly weeping and blaming herself for what happened. Dream Ikumi asks Mana why she is crying, and he soon begins to fade away, with sand particles being carried into the air by the wind as she loses consciousness. Later Mana explains to the Reader how her and her family awoke in the hospital. The doctors and staff were surprised they even lived that experience with the quick sand, and after being let out she went back to the Shrine to find the drawings now missing. She believes it truly was just a bad dream, and since then she has gone on to appreciate her brother for his occasionally nice side. He is still a jerk but she appreciates this and is glad to be a part of this family. Mana is shown to be sitting on a set of swings near the shrine again as she looks over her report. But as she gets up she happens to find an image of a girl drawn by Ikumi and stares at it. Prior to this moment Ikumi is shown complaining over Mana and how he wishes for a cute little sister like his friend. He goes on to reveal the charm book he found, saying that girls use it so he thought he would give it a try. A cute and creepy looking girl is shown to be standing behind Mana suddenly, and within seconds she pushes her into the sand. Yomi's Epilogue As Yomi observes Mana and Ikumi playing a game, she discusses how fragile a bond between siblings can be. She suggests that if the Readers have ever thought about wanting an ideal sibling they try the charm out, and she is showing drawing someone in the sand. Yonkoma In the omake for volume 8, it is shown that the "dream sister" is beginning to get fed up with Ikumi because of her being so cute, he likes to dress her up and fawns over her. She decides to get rid of him by wishing for another. Characters *Un-named sibling pair *Mana Hibino *Ikumi Hibino *Dream Brother *Mr. & Mrs. Hibino *Mana's Friend *Dream Sister *Dream Parents Quotes Trivia Gallery Category:Manga Category:Chapters Category:Vol 8